The way to keep a boiler healthy and operating at its highest efficiency is to perform regular maintenance.

Boiler tube cleaning plays a critical role in preventing reductions in efficiency. Even a small amount of deposit or buildup can act as an insulation barrier, which reduces efficiency and increases the amount of required fuel. 

Scheduled maintenance on your critical steam infrastructure is essential to ongoing boiler safety, reliability and efficiencies. A blog post from Miura discusses the benefits of regular maintenance for your steam boiler network.

Industrial boilers do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to keeping production processes or even facilities operating as effectively as possible. Yet, maintenance personnel may forget how important regular service and cleaning are to boiler performance. 

Some methods of boiler layup can be less than satisfactory. At one end of the spectrum is the option to do nothing and risk whatever rusty consequences may eventually follow. At the other end of the spectrum are measures such as the use of a desiccant or applying a nitrogen blanket. This article will look more closely at using vapor corrosion inhibitors for boiler layup.

In this issue of Process Heating, we have two articles to help you optimize boiler maintenance and — in the event of idled equipment — boiler layup, as well as advice about temperature sensors for fired heaters and heat exchangers for food-grade applications.

Engineering and technical support is a great resource to get your questions answered about boilers and boiler systems. Read six common questions in process heating applications.

Boiler efficiency is undoubtedly the most important and widely used term when the subject of purchasing a new industrial steam system begins. Unfortunately, the goal of some boiler manufacturers at times seems to be to make the process of understanding efficiency as difficult as possible. 

Many refinery complexes in Texas are aging: At sites across the region, it is not uncommon to find boilers that are more than 50 years old. As a result, these facilities can be hit with costly unplanned outages as well as being subject to higher fuel costs due to inefficiency. 

Many of the process industries — among them, food and beverage, chemical processing, pulp and paper, pharmaceutical and mining — use vast amounts of water and energy in their day-to-day operations.